


Two Times

by futuretoews19



Category: Hockey RPF
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-31
Updated: 2014-01-31
Packaged: 2018-01-10 16:05:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1161769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/futuretoews19/pseuds/futuretoews19
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s both the hardest and easiest choice he’s ever had to make.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've muddled with a few things throughout this entire work. I'd list them, but there would be a whole lot of spoilers. So, I'll add chapter notes with the important things each time I update.

Growing up, Patrick never had to think about what he wanted to do with his life. He just knew. For as long as he could remember, nothing rivaled the feeling of ice beneath his skates, the sound of a puck hit his stick, the adrenaline after getting a goal. Nothing else enticed him.

He was 13 when his parents relocated the family to Winnipeg. His dad was following a better job opportunity and took all of them along for the ride. Patrick had always been serious about hockey, but looking back, Pat thinks that he wouldn’t have gotten as far as he did without the move from Buffalo to Winnipeg. It’s there that he met Jonathan Toews, and it’s Jon that essentially changed his life.

-

Walking into the first day of practice with a new team is both scary and exciting for Pat. He’s happy his mom found a team at his level for him to be on, but they just moved so he doesn’t have any friends in Winnipeg yet. His dad keeps telling him that this will be a great time for him to meet some friends, but Patrick isn’t so sure. His parents have never seen him in the locker room with the other boys- they just know Pat off the ice. He doesn’t think they understand that he can be two completely different people, and he’s never really explained that to them. So he just nods and agrees, hoping they are right.

He finds an open locker and sits down at it, trying not to draw too much attention to himself. Pat’s not really sure what the rules here are, since back home they had assigned lockers but here they don’t have any name plates. Everyone else seems to be just sitting down by their friends, so he picks one off in the corner kind of away from everyone. He’s okay with not talking to anyone yet. It’s his first day and he’s just excited to be back on ice, so Pat just focuses on getting his gear ready like he always does.

Well, he would, but two minutes later a shadow looms over him so he looks up. It’s some kid, already in full gear. He’s probably the same age as Pat is, but he somehow looks older. He looks really mad for some reason and Pat has no idea why. He’s also just standing there, staring at Pat which is honestly really weird. “Uh,” is all he manages to get out before the kid is thrusting his hand out towards Patrick. Pat looks down at the hand, then back up to the guy’s face. His confusion must show because the dude huffs a little laugh, like something’s funny.

“I’m Jon. You’re Patrick Kane right?" 

Patrick is racking his brain trying to figure out why one of his teammates would already know his name and then he notices the C etched into the kid’s jersey. He’s still just standing there, waiting for Patrick to like shake his hand or something, so he pulls himself together enough to actually respond to him. “Yeah. Kaner, actually.”

“Well, _Kaner_ ,” the kid- Jon- says while they shake hands, “it’s nice to finally meet you. Coach has been talking about you joining us for a couple days now. Let’s see if you’re as good as he says you are, eh?” And walks away. 

Pat sits there, frozen, for a minute before he gets himself to move. ‘Let’s see if you’re as good as he says you are?’ That sounds like a challenge. Who is this kid even, challenging Pat before he’s even seen him skate? Not that Patrick isn’t as good as anyone says he is. Probably. Point is, Patrick is going to have to step up his game this morning just to prove to Jon that he is good. Really good. 

It’s not until after practice that Jon finds him again. He gives Pat another once over (and seriously what is with this kid and his looks) and simply says “not bad” before he walks away. The only thing Pat can remember thinking is _oh it is so on_.

- 

By the end of that first season, Jon is his best friend. They learned in the second week that they live just a few streets away from each other, so they go to the same school. They even have a few classes together which Pat thinks is nice. It’s easy to get along with Jon just because they’re so alike. Pat might be more talkative, but Jon is just as focused on hockey as he is. Pat’s never had someone to play with that’s so good, but Jon is. He helps Pat with his French, and Pat helps Jon with his math. They’re playing on the same line, and they’re always giving each other tips, though sometimes they just straight up yell at each other. At first, the team thought it was super weird that they’d just start yelling at each other in the middle of practice or on the bench during a game, but now everyone seems pretty used to it. They won a lot more games than they lost, and they only missed winning the league by one game. Second place stings, but everyone knows they’ll do better next year.

They do end up winning the league the next year, and the first thing Jon does is tug Patrick into a hug. Pat’s pretty confident that his first summer in Winnipeg is going to be a good one, because he knows he’ll be spending it with Jonny.

-

Patrick loves his sisters, he really does. But he’s so glad to have friends outside of the three of them for once. Back in Buffalo, he had some friends in school, but no one he was really that close with. It was always the Kane siblings, which was okay for the time. Maybe that’s why he’s so happy to have Jonny in life. Jonny was his first real friend. At 13, Patrick doesn’t know it, but Jonny ends up being way more than his first real friend.


	2. Chapter 2

It’s during the third season that Patrick really starts to see how much Jonny really cares about him. It’s not something they really talk about, being 16 year old guys and such, but it’s not like Pat doesn’t know that Jonny cares about him. The words have never been spoken because they never needed to be. It’s just something he knows- along with how the sun rises in the east, sets in the west- he just knows Jonny cares about him. And he knows Jonny knows that Pat cares about him too.

During their 4 th game of the season, Pat gets taken down in a violent, but legal check. Jon is out on the ice with him, and it’s a bad enough hit that it takes Pat a little extra time to get back on his feet. The crowd had gone silent, or at least he thinks they did, and while he’s getting back on his skates, there’s a sudden uproar. He takes a second to look around and to his complete shock, Jon is actually trying to _fight_ the guy. Like, gloves dropped, stick flown halfway across the ice ‘I’m going to punch your face’ kind of fight. Which normally wouldn’t be weird but Jon _does not fight_. Ever. Patrick isn’t sure if he wants to laugh or cry. 

He finally makes it to his skates in time to see Jonny land a perfectly placed fist to the guy’s eye and since when does Jon even know how to punch? That’s new information. The ref’s make it over and separate them and herd both of them into the boxes for fighting. While he’s being skated to the box, Jon keeps his eyes trained on Pat like he’s able to make Patrick be okay with just his gaze. It’s weird having someone fight for him. Sure, he’s small but Pat can totally hold his own no matter what anyone else says. It makes something twinge in his gut, probably admiration or something but Pat doesn’t have time to really think about it before play is resuming.

He ends up scoring on the 4-on-4. He points to Jon in the box who just smiles widely back at him.

\--

After the game, he has to be checked by the trainers who conclude it’ll just result in a ton of bruising and that he has to ice. (Nothing he hasn’t heard before honestly.) Once he assures them that he knows the icing procedure (15 minutes on, 15 minutes off for one hour) he joins the team in the locker room to get changed. He’s not back with the team for 30 seconds before Jon is coming over to him. He smiles winningly up at Jon from his spot on the bench. “Nice shot there, Tazer.”

The nickname earns him a scowl. “Shut up, Kaner.”

“Yeah yeah Captain Serious. What was that about anyway?”

Jon looks confused at the question. It’s the face that Pat has donned the “why are you asking me stupid questions Kaner” face. Which, what even that was not a stupid question.

“He hurt you.” And okay, Pat pretty much knew that by the way that his captain/best friend went out there and punched a guy in the eye. But like, it’s not like he’s never been hurt before. He tells Jonny as much.

“Yeah, well. It looked bad okay.”

“So you decided to punch a guy in the eye because a hit looked bad?”

And the scowl is back. “Yeah, Kaner, I punched a guy because the hit looked bad.”

“What do you need to like defend my honor now or something?” Pat rolls his eyes.

“I wasn’t..... I didn’t mean to...... The guy has to know that that shit isn’t okay. That’s all.” And that’s a pretty shitty excuse as far as Tazer-excuses go. He also looks kind of red. Not the I-just-played-an-entire-game-of-hockey red, but more like the I-am-embarrassed kind of red. Which doesn’t really make any sense, honestly. Unless...

“Holy shit. You totally _were_ defending my honor.”

Jon turns beet red and stammers out something about “talk later” while Patrick is busy trying to not laugh his ass off, but also ignore that same twinge in his gut as Jonny walks away.

Holy crap. Jon defending his honor. And then being embarrassed about wanting to defend his honor. Which is most definitely something that they will be talking about later. Whether Jon actually meant that or not, there’s no way in hell Patrick is letting that one go.

- 

He doesn’t get a chance to bring it up until two days later while they’re in Jon’s room doing homework. He gets bored trying to figure out what Shakespeare meant, so he pointedly shuts his book and stares at Jon until he turns around.

“What Kaner?”

“So, defending my honor eh?”

Jon once again goes beet red. “Can we not talk about this? 

“Oh, we are so going to talk about this. I can’t have you going around punching guys every time I get taken down. What good will a captain in the box all the time serve us?”

Jon just rolls his eyes. “Don’t flatter yourself, Kaner. I don’t punch guys every time you get taken down. I’d be punching half the league.”

“But Tazer, you totally did. And that warrants talking about. So spill.”

Jon shifts uncomfortably in his seat, eyes darting around the room looking at anything but Pat. Which is pretty weird on the scale of Tazer-weirdness. Usually he’ll look right at Pat when they’re talking.

After a few moments of silence, Jon mumbles something that he has to know there’s no way Pat can actually hear. So he fixes Jon with a look that speaks for itself. He drops his head into his hands and says more clearly “because I care about you, okay?”

And if Jon thought that was 1) enough to get him off the hook or 2) earth shattering news, he was wrong on both counts. Which Pat tells him.

He gets a long-suffering sigh in return. “Do I have to spell this out for you Patrick? I like you okay. 

“I like you too buddy, but you don’t see me going around punching guys about it.”

Jon lifts his head and, oh. He doesn’t mean like as in you’re-my-best-friend like. He means it in a I-totally-want-to-bone-you like. Okay. 

That twinge in his gut is back. The one that he’s starting to associate with Jon. And, okay, apparently he is totally into that idea. Like, really into that idea. They’ve been friends for so long, and Pat’s always admired Jon. His skating, his speed, his ability to handle the puck. But he’s also admired Jon’s dead glares, his stupid half smile, or the way he laughs at his own jokes like he’s the funniest guy in the world. He’s belatedly realizing that yeah, he’s totally into Jonny in not a just bro’s kind of way.

He realizes he’s been silent for like two whole minutes just staring at Jon, who’s back to having his head in his hands. “Jonny.” Something in his voice must catch Jon’s attention enough, because his head snaps up and his eyes are trained right on Pat’s face. “Jonny come here.”

Whatever he sees in Patrick’s face must be enough to convince him, because he’s by Pat’s side in an instant. They stare at each other for a moment, and then Patrick leans in. It’s far from perfect, noses bumping and too much smiling.

Of course Jonny’s his first kiss.


End file.
